


To Ash and Dust

by were1993



Category: Super Junior, Super Junior-M
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 22:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1165148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/were1993/pseuds/were1993
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Vampires don't leave bodies.)</p><p>Zhoumi is a vampire who doesn't believe he needs to hide what he is. It's better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you're not. Many people don't share his belief, and he honestly doesn't care until one of his best friends, also a vampire, is murdered.</p><p>(Getting bitten is not the worse thing that can ever happen.)</p><p>Cho Kyuhyun has a very typical life as a graduate student working on the mathematics behind protein folding. Exciting, he knows. Working so closely with the natural world, he never expects to become interested in anything supernatural. It helps when supernatural is tall, dark and sort of his type.</p><p>(Everyone has an agenda.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginning

Kyuhyun wasn’t sure what to do.

It was three in the morning. He was bleeding from a vampire bite to his neck and the said vampire was crying on the alleyway floor.

Kyuhyun had taken a shortcut back home when he was forcefully pinned to the wall. Before he could make any sound, a cold, cold hand clamped over his mouth. He was still reeling from pain and possibly a concussion to really fight back. Although, to be honest, it wouldn’t have mattered even if he could.

The moment he felt two sharp teeth pierce into his neck, Kyuhyun thought his life was over. His ears rang with his mother’s nagging of vampire attacks and the three dead bodies found in alleyways just like this.

Kyuhyun could feel his blood being pulled against its natural flow to those cold lips. His entire body was shaking and a sob left his neck—wait, no, the vampire was shaking and _crying_? As quickly as those teeth found purchase in his neck, they were ripped away. Kyuhyun groaned in pain as the retraction tore more skin. Without the strong force holding him up against the wall, Kyuhyun slumped down to the floor and touched his neck tentatively. 

His fingers quickly found the two puncture marks from the slight wetness surrounding it. Kyuhyun focused on breathing in and out and in and out. He probably should have gotten to his feet and ran for it. After all, what if the vampire decided to return and finish the job? But with his head light and body heavy, Kyuhyun figured that he wouldn’t get very far either way. He needed to steady himself and _what’s that sound—oh my god, it’s still here!_  

There was a dark lump on the floor just beyond his feet, and Kyuhyun could hear the muffled weeping over his own ragged breathes. Eventually the sounds became more intelligible and it sounded like a mantra of _I’m sorry_ , alternating between Korean and something else.

“Hey,” Kyuhyun whispered. It garnered no response as the dark shadow continued to mumble. Kyuhyun gritted his teeth and pushed himself up to his feet. Closing his eyes, the human steadied himself on the wall as his blood rushed from his head.

Kyuhyun opened his eyes hesitantly and looked at the distant streetlights. He could take this chance to run. He would reach the side street in a couple feet and the main road in another couple. It could be his only opportunity. He just needed to—

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I’m so sorry, never again, sorry,” came the disjointed blubbering from the floor. It sounded so hurt and genuine. It seemed wrong to walk away from someone—vampire or human or werewolf or whatever—so obviously devastated. 

Biting his lip, Kyuhyun said a quick prayer: _please don’t let me regret this_. He was either going crazy or Siwon’s sermons were getting to him. Hopefully choosing to be a caring person wasn’t going to get him killed.

Kyuhyun took a hesitant step closer to the hunched figure and knelt down. He debated about putting a comforting hand on the vampire’s shoulder but decided against it.

“Hey,” Kyuhyun said loudly. He winced at the volume but forged on. “You okay there?”

The babbling continued on and the vampire didn’t acknowledge his words. Kyuhyun sighed and reached deep inside for whatever bravery he might possess. He took a daring finger and poked the trembling vampire on the shoulder, hard. 

“Are you okay?” Kyuhyun asked again, louder and slower.

The stream of words suddenly stopped as the vampire finally took notice. The vampire slowly looked up with unnaturally bright eyes and bloody lips, yet the first things Kyuhyun noticed were the large nose and tear stained cheeks. 

A male vampire, Kyuhyun mused. Prominent features on a slim build. Not at all unappealing, but at the moment, he was definitely looked a bit pathetic with snot dripping down his nose and drool mixing with the blood on his chin.

“Are…are _you_ all right?” the vampire finally asks, voice hoarse and thick with accent. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and sniffled.

“Well, I’m still alive if that counts for anything,” Kyuhyun shrugs. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“You’ve said that several times already,” Kyuhyun says with more nonchalance than he felt. “I’m Kyuhyun by the way.”

“Zhoumi,” the vampire responds. He hasn’t moved from his hunched position on the floor and honestly, Kyuhyun finds it comical for a vampire to look so intimidated by him.

“Are you Chinese?” Kyuhyun asks. He doesn’t know where this sudden strength or friendliness is coming from. It might be Zhoumi’s terrified look or timid speech, but either way, Kyuhyun didn’t feel as though this vampire would be biting him again tonight. 

“Yes,” Zhoumi answers.

“It’s cold isn’t it?” Kyuhyun asks. He doesn’t wait for an answer before grabbing Zhoumi’s arm and hauling him upright. “There’s a 24 hour café down the street that I really like. Do you drink coffee? If not, I’m sure they have some good tea or something.”

“Wait, shouldn’t you leave, I don’t know, run away because I mean, since I just bit you?” Zhoumi questions, ending up more uncertain than he began.

“Hn, the bite does show,” Kyuhyun frowns, touching his exposed neck. “Can’t really say these are hickies.” 

“Wait Kyuhyun-ssi, that’s not the point,” Zhoumi fumbles with his words. “You’re in a poorly light alleyway with a vampire and honestly, it’s probably not the safest situation to be in. You really should leave, alert the authorities of the attack, get yourself checked and go ho—” 

“Lend me your scarf,” Kyuhyun says.            

“Huh?”

“Lend me your scarf,” Kyuhyun repeats. “It’ll cover them up and be unsuspicious.”

“Were you even—okay,” Zhoumi agrees, giving in to his confusion. He pulls off his maroon scarf and hands it to Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun winds the long knit twice around his neck and pats the fuzzy material childishly. He doesn’t have a mirror, but he’s quite sure the two scabbed over wounds are hidden quite nicely.

“Coffee?” Kyuhyun asks, looking up—woah, this vampire was tall. 

“I really don’t think—”

Kyuhyun merely grabbed the man’s wrist and pulled him along. Maybe his burst of confidence came from the late hour. That was probably it. Blood loss, sleep deprivation and delirium. The joys of being a graduate student. 

Zhoumi doesn’t put up very much fuss, allowing himself to be pulled through the street and into the rather empty café. Under clear lighting, Zhoumi was all unfair genetics, slender legs, wide shoulders, strong jaw and flawless skin. Kyuhyun forced himself to look away. 

“Um, if—I know its unfair compensation but,” Zhoumi begins. Kyuhyun tells himself that he looks back at the handsome male because it was polite and his parents taught him to be polite. “Could I buy your drink?”

Blood loss, sleep deprivation and delirium. Yes, that was why. Otherwise, Kyuhyun would definitely not be ogling the tall vampire.

“Okay,” Kyuhyun agrees. He ignores his mother’s nagging voice about talking to strangers. 


	2. Accusation

“Kim Youngwoon, you listen here—” 

The speaker was swiftly muffled with a hand over his mouth.

“Kim Heechul, _you_ listen here,” Kim Youngwoon whispered. In the early mornings, the small street was rather unoccupied, but Youngwoon was not risking anything. “When we meet on the streets, it’s Kangin. Say it with me. _Kang-In_.”

Unfortunately, Kim Heechul probably hadn’t heard a single word. The feisty man struggled against the other’s strong grip. When he couldn’t physically rip the hand away from his mouth, Heechul licked Kangin’s palm, coating it heavily with saliva. Kangin yelped at the sudden wet sensation and pulled his hand away quickly.

“All right, Kang-fucking-In,” Heechul hissed. “If you cared so much about your job, then you should have taken on Seasoning’s fucking case.”

“If this is about Zhoumi again,” Kangin sighed.

“His friend was _tortured_ and _killed_ ,” Heechul scowled. His eyes flickered between dark brown and red. While most people would have probably screamed at the bright crackles of light that surrounded them like a dome, Kangin merely narrowed his eyes at the spectacle. “Do you know how much it takes for a human to actually _kill_ a vampire?”

“Do _you_ know how much evidence it takes for us to actually accept a case?” Kangin retorted. “We do require some sort of evidence that the crime transpired.”

Killing a vampire was not as difficult as popular media made it out to be. Anything silver, even a butter knife, to the skull would easily do a vampire in, but it was subduing the crafty nightwalkers that made vampire murders an unlikely case for any police investigation. It didn’t help that vampires more or less disintegrated after death, leaving nothing for forensics or detectives to look into. 

Kim Youngwoo was an undercover detective under the alias Kangin, and the cases he investigated usually had nothing to do with anything remotely human. He was the guy who looked into werewolf attacks and black markets for goblin blood. So if a vampire was tortured and murdered, it was definitely an investigation he would lead.

But yesterday, Zhoumi came into the station, empty handed with only his word. The tall, Chinese vampire was definitely in a great amount of distress, proving that something did happen, but the police could not help him unless he could prove the murder occurred. There was no body and the murder weapon was gone. By legal procedure, they couldn’t do anything to help him. 

“I heard what happened from Jungs—oh, fine, _Leeteuk_ -hyung,” Heechul growled as Kangin shot him a warning look. “Zhoumi’s not the type who to go to the police, unless he felt like there was no other way.”

“I’m sure he felt that way,” Kangin agreed. At this point, he would agree with whatever Heechul had to say for the man to calm down. The air around them was spitting flashes of light to the entire street. At some point, someone was going to notice.

“If some human died because a vampire, your people would be all over that immediately,” Heechul ranted. “Yet, if a vampire was tortured and murdered by a human, no one gives a shit!”

“That’s not true—”

“Then why is nothing being done?” Heechul asked, voice dangerously low. 

“ _Hyung_ , you know why,” Kangin gritted. He was not backing down on this point. Everything had a process and Zhoumi’s case could not even begin the process. “Nothing can be done.”

“I heard what your superiors told him,” Heechul says in a deceptively soft manner. “They can’t do anything unless he has a dead body.”

The air gave a loud menacing crack.

“Now, Zhoumi’s not the smartest vampire on the block but he’s definitely not the most idiotic either,” Heechul continued. His eyes faded from bright red to pale yellow. “Dead vampires don’t leave bodies, but dead humans do.”

“He would become a criminal,” Kangin responded.

“And then you’d open up a case,” Heechul smiled, wide and fake. Kangin wasn’t able to get a word in before a bright flash blinded him and Heechul was gone.

“Damn witches,” Kangin muttered. He began down the street to return to his original task, but he could only take two steps before stopping.

Kim Heechul was a witch famous for his many whims, but he was most notoriously known for his clairvoyance. There were centuries of records for his prophetic words. He says things and things happen. The church didn’t protect this witch during the witch-hunts for nothing.

_Unless he has a dead body. And then you’d open up a case._

“Ah shit,” Kangin groaned. He pulled out his phone and pressed the first speed dial. “Hey, I’m coming back to base. We need to talk.”

In his rush, Kangin ran past a certain 24-hour café where a tall, lanky vampire sat across from a human with a red knitted scarf.

The sun had just risen. Another vampire was dead, but no one would know. No one had witnessed it and at the crime scene, nothing—not a trace—would remain. 


	3. Restless

“When are you going to learn not to meddle, hyung?” Choi Siwon sighed. He smoothed out the old pages of his personal Bible. It had helped him through many difficulties and most all of them nowadays were called Kim Heechul.

“When you stop believing in an all mighty imaginary friend,” Heechul snapped back, but there was no malice behind it. Siwon had learned to take it not as an attack on his faith but rather as the witches’ caustic way of saying: I do what I want, go away. Heechul has a number of offensive ways to say that, but in the end, Siwon does believe in the best of the witch, no matter how misguided that belief might be.  

“I hope you’re not going to make your threat to Youngwoo-hyung a reality,” Siwon said gently, placing his Bible back on the shelf. “You have a knack of, let’s just say, making your own prophecies come true.”

“I know no witchcraft that could manipulate anyone into doing something against their wishes,” Heechul scoffs. “If Seasoning truly kills a human, it’s not with my influence.”

“Zhoumi-hyung is in a precarious emotional state right now,” Siwon asserted. “In his heartache, he might actually _want_ to kill someone for the police to listen. Then it’s not you influencing a decision but rather you amplifying a fleeting thought a thousand fold.” 

“Give me a little more credit, priest-y,” Heechul laughs. “I don’t abuse my powers as much as you think. Besides Zhoumi is more of a friend to me than you might think.”

“Your definition of friend is alarmingly similar to most people’s definition of underling,” another voice joined the conversation. The closed door didn’t move, and there were no windows in Siwon’s private study.

“Hankyung-ah, who taught you the word ‘underling’?” Heechul scoffed.

“You, when you were drunk,” Hankyung, the Korean version of his true name Hangeng, said. His voice was no louder than a whisper, but it carried through the room like a gust of wind, filling every crevice with his echo.

“Too bad you can’t join me in my intoxication,” Heechul sighs. “I’d love to see you loosen up a bit for once.” 

“Hyung,” Siwon warned. He tapped his fingers on the desk nervously. Physical activities were a bit of a sore spot for Hangeng. It wasn’t just running or dancing—the man had been a dancer—but rather anything that required a body in flesh and blood.

“What? Now I have to be sensitive to everyone’s problems?” Heechul questioned, throwing Siwon an irritated look. “Hankyung’s been dead for over fifty years.”

The bookshelves shuddered and the sturdy desk creaked as some phantom energy seemed to bear down with some anger. Heechul squinted as sparks of light crackled around him. The witch muttered something in a language long out of use and the pressure was alleviated. 

Nothing stirred. Not even the dust on the table. Yet the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Heechul glared at one spot for quite some time before looking away. The heaviness in the air disappeared. Hangeng had left.

Siwon breathed a sight of relief. His hand automatically went to the cross around his neck, stroking the simple wood cross as though to pacify it. He would have started talking to the cross if it weren’t for Heechul’s sudden complaint. 

“If you’re going to be a drama queen,” Heechul scoffed. “At least make the lights flicker. 

The lamp on Siwon’s desk turned on and off. Twice.  


	4. Snowflake

Winters in Seoul were cold. They were also cold in Beijing. 

Watching people bundled up on the streets, Hangeng remembers the bite of frost on his skin and the numbness seeping into his bones. Yet winter wasn’t always characterized with feelings of discomfort. He also remembers the spreading of warmth through his fingertips as a roaring fire thawed his body and good company melted his heart.    

It’s been too long since he’s felt that or anything else to be honest. 

According to his birth year, Hangeng should be seventy-six, married with children and probably grandchildren. Yet his image is immortalized at twenty-six. 

Fifty years ago, Hangeng died in Seoul, Korea, far from home and from anyone who knew him. His dreams unfulfilled and his limitless future cut short. On his dying breath, he made a pact with the witch, Kim Heechul.    

So now he was bound to Seoul, bound to Korea, bound to a place far, far from home. Hangeng left his home to die without any family or friends. It left a burning resentment in his soul and for half a century, it’s been the only thing he could feel. 

Fifty years might seem like a long time, but death wasn’t something anyone—other than Heechul—could really just say: Get over it. 

“Excuse me,” a voice said quietly. “I would appreciate it if you told your vampire friend to stay away from my ward.”

Hangeng blinked in confusion. Most non-humans and even some exceedingly sensitive humans could see and communicate with ghosts to varying degrees. So it wasn’t as though someone addressing him was strange or unusual. Rather it was the way their voice echoed and filled the air much like how his own did. _Like how his own voice did_.

Hangeng turned so fast that the other took a defensive fighting stance in surprise. If he still had a physical body, he could have experienced whiplash. Since he didn’t, Hangeng just focused on the young ghostly man standing in front of him with fists up and knees bent. 

“You,” Hangeng said quickly. “You, you, who are you? I didn’t know there were any other bound ghosts around here. I thought that I was the only one. Wait, does that mean there are other witches in the area? Then won’t the Church—” 

Hangeng probably blabbed on for another minute before realizing that in his excitement, he completely switched over to Chinese. The other man stared at him wide eyed with a bemused smile.

“Lee Sungmin,” the other introduced himself. “I’m Lee Sungmin. Completely Korean so…what was it? _Wo ting bu dong_?”

“You know Chinese?” Hangeng asks, suddenly slightly more excited.

Sungmin immediately shakes his head and replies, “Nope, not a bit. I just took an introductory class in college and well, let’s just say that’s all I managed to learn.” 

“I’m Hangeng—er, Hankyung,” Hangeng smiled, mood not damped at all from Sungmin’s lack of Chinese skills. He’s met ghosts before but usually they were evil spirits. After all, most souls move on to wherever they go. The ones that don’t were usually overwhelmed by negative emotions and rather violent. “Died at twenty-six, fifty years ago. Bound to this country by a witch. You?” 

“I guess you’re the hyung no matter what huh?” Sungmin said sheepishly. “I died three years ago at twenty-four. Car accident. I guess, you could say I’m haunting my best friend.”

“You’re haunting your best friend?” Hangeng asked. Confusion suddenly strikes him. If Lee Sungmin died three years ago, he should have either moved on or turned into an evil presence by now. Without some magical hocus-pocus, souls don’t stay so _pure_ in pugatory. “Wait, are you—”

“Oh yeah, best friend, Kyuhyun,” Sungmin claps his hands together in a very cute manner. “You’re friend, the tall, lanky, Chinese, uh, large nosed vampire. Please let him know that I don’t appreciate him attacking Kyuhyun.”

“Zhoumi?” Hangeng guessed. It sounded like Zhoumi at least. He didn’t know too many tall, large nosed Chinese vampires. In fact, he didn’t know many vampires in general. Most of them were secretive and preferred living out of sight. Zhoumi and his friends were a strange exception. 

“That’s right,” Sungmin muttered, jerking Hangeng out of his thoughts. “That was his name. I thought it was like Jomi or Jyomi or something like that…”

“He attacked your friend?” Hangeng asked. So something Heechul said came true. Since no second ghost popped up, Hangeng made the bold assumption that this Kyuhyun was still alive, probably shaken up a bit and ready to call the police. “Is you friend alright?”

“Kyuhyunnie is fine,” Sungmin pouted, or at least it looked like a pout to Hangeng. “In fact, they’re still at the coffee shop. Kyuhyun needs to get home before his mom calls the police. It’s almost nine in the morning now.”

“You friend is with Zhoumi at a coffee shop after Zhoumi bit him,” Hangeng repeated slowly with a little disbelief. Most people would probably run away screaming at the _sight_ of a vampire.

“Yeah, he’s a little strange sometimes but hey, grew up together so I also kind of let it happen too,” Sungmin shrugged. “But getting to the point, do you think you can come with me to the café so you could tell Kyuhyun to go home and Zhoumi not to do that again?”

Hangeng open and closed his mouth, once, twice, before finally nodding, “Lead the way.” 

It didn’t occur to Hangeng until later—after they reached the coffee shop and saw Kyuhyun passed out on the table with Zhoumi nodding off across from him—why couldn’t Sungmin just talk to Zhoumi? 


End file.
